Posted on 04/22/2016 1:10:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Since the debate over what he said yesterday is still raging, it’s only fair that you get to hear his latest comment about it. Skip to 8:35 of the clip below from last night’s interview on Trump TV.
His response to Hannity’s question about North Carolina is a dodge but it’s a dodge with a conservative pedigree. If you’re a Republican who’s been put on the spot about a hot-button social issue, you can’t go wrong saying, “Leave it to the states.” Even righties who disagree with you on the merits will tip their caps at your nod to federalism. In fact, this is Cruz’s go-to answer whenever he’s asked about gay marriage or marijuana. He’s against legalizing either, he’ll tell you, which pleases social conservatives, but he’s also not looking to use federal power to impose his personal preference, which pleases everyone else. Trump’s answer is trying to create the same dynamic — with a twist. Instead of reassuring non-Republicans that he’ll defer to their local preference, as Cruz does when he gives the federalism answer, Trump’s reassuring his own party. He’s telling the same evangelicals who helped him crush Cruz across the south that he’ll pose no obstacle to them on this issue as president, which is an … interesting position for a soon-to-be party nominee to find himself in with respect to his own base.
There’s one other key difference: Cruz opts for a federalist answer on gay marriage and marijuana because each of those issues has been pushed by social conservatives at the federal level. Marijuana is regulated by the federal government, of course, and SSM opponents have spent years calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment. Cruz, in choosing federalism, is answering a bona fide question of whether the states or the feds should govern on those topics. There’s no similar state/federal dispute over North Carolina’s law. No one’s calling for a Federal Transgender Bathroom Amendment. Trump seizes on federalism, in other words, not because there’s a legitimate question of which government should address this subject but because he understands that federalism is a crowd-pleasing way to dodge when you don’t know what to say. It’s another small example of him not knowing how to speak conservative fluently.
I wouldn’t call it a flip-flop, though, as some Trump critics have on social media. This is a flip-flop:
Trump went from fiscal hawk to dove in 3 weeks. Obama would agree with much of this: https://t.co/SXKiPa4lRo pic.twitter.com/s0RMW3VT2Z
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) April 22, 2016
That’s from an interview with Fortune Magazine, which pressed him on why he could possibly believe he might pay off America’s $19 trillion debt in 10 years. “I didn’t say 10 years,” Trump replied. Er, three weeks ago he said he could pay it off in eight years, and that he’d do it mainly by renegotiating America’s trade deals, which wouldn’t remotely approach $2-3 trillion per year in surpluses. How you reconcile that with what he said to Fortune, I have no idea. Maybe that’s what Paul Manafort meant by Trump playing a “part” earlier and shifting to a more sober approach now. The old Trump would lie, lie, lie right to your face about his superheroic powers of debt-slashing. The new, serious Trump will be more realistic, “realistic” in this case meaning somehow spending more on the military and on infrastructure and not laying a finger on entitlement spending (as Trump has promised before) and yet somehow still reducing the debt in the process. Old Trump, in other words, was more like Superman whereas new Trump is more like Batman — wildly implausible, if not quite outright impossible.
Here’s the Hannity interview, followed by Cruz trying to capitalize on Manafort’s comments to the RNC.
Oh Travis don’t stop there, pull up a pic of Dennis Lynn Rader! Yes there are pic of him like that out there only worse.
Cruz has been embarrassingly evangelical. It’s so fake, it’s ridiculous.
Awesome “Black Pigeon” video.
The Transgender: Normalizing MENTAL ILLNESS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDAU3SPYFsA
Not a conservative position.
That’s like saying abortion is okay, it just should not be convenient. But Trump probably is unaware of the legal and political impact of such positions because he is not a politician and has not really worked this out philosophically.
Very discouraging. Conservatives deserve better.
Just say Bruce Jenner. And not Chelsea Manning. This is getting crazy. Cutting off your balls or pretending to cut off your balls does not a woman make. No one listens to the great Germaine Greer who has spoken out forcefully and wittily about this.
“he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this...”
Cream of Wheat?
“he’s resembling a certain breakfast food on this...”
Jimmy Dean Sausage?
I can see that I’ve lost complete control of my meme...
...and I’m lovin’ it.
Two things I believe about Trump: he loathes muslims because of 9/11. And two, he wants invaders from central and south America stopped at the border. If he can do these two things, I will be so happy. Not one Republican has been able to stop the slaughter of abortion or the advancement of the evil and insane gay agenda. So why should we hold him to a completely different standard? Cruz wouldn’t be able to do anything about it either, probably, because he’d have too much on his plate once he made it into the oval office. Sad, very sad, but true.
P.S.: As a New Yorker, I can tell you he is a law and order guy. Very much so. Hillary will make a meal of his involvement in the Central Park Jogger case - in which he was, of course, perfectly right. And he definitely loves our vets.
Trump is the presumptive nominee.
You are correct. The surgical transformation only accommodates the underlying mental illness that causes their behavior. The madness will not go away with any kind of medical technology. Only psychiatric counseling and the willingness to work for change. If you are religious, the healing powers of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ is the only way.
Bruce Jenner wasted his money and only bought more heartache.
RE: Cruz has been embarrassingly evangelical. It’s so fake, it’s ridiculous.
I don’t know what you mean by being “embarrassingly evangelical”. If he is, he is. What’s there to be embarrassed about your Christian belief?
And Trump isn’t embarrassing when he tries to act “Christian”?
I kinda wish he’d stop the phony “I’m a strong” Christian routine. It’s kinda cringe worthy to say the least.
Look, if you don’t read the Bible, just say so. Don’t pretend that you do and then when asked what your favorite Bible verse is... respond with “It’s personal”.
Then When asked if he has ever asked God for forgiveness or repented of his sins, a key tenant of Christianity, Trump openly said no, and could not really recall a time, ever, that he needed to ask God for forgiveness
When speaking at Liberty University, he so badly flubbed the name of one of the most popular New Testament epistles that it became a trending topic. He’s not a young man, mind you, he’s a senior citizen. He’s 69 years old. He doesn’t know these things because they aren’t a real part of his life.
So Mr, Trump, please stop telling us that the IRS is auditing you because you are a “Strong Christian”.
And stop questioning the faith of other people ( like your opponent ).
I’d rather you simply say you’d defend the rights of Christians and their freedom to live as their faith dictate and simply stop there.
“I am a Trump voter. I respect his big picture view of the world and support him. He’s not perfect like the snarky, miserable, little nasal-voiced pipsqueak Cruz. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!””
Look I am sick of all of this. I don’t care if you guys vote for Mickey Mouse for president. The topic of this thread and the issue at heart is who ever elected in that office better understand that men are NOT allowed in the women’s bathroom and locker rooms across America. End of story.
If u have a penis use the men’s room, if you have a vagina use the women’s room. If you can’t handle that we will put you in a Nervous Hospital
Now all of you go vote for who ever you feel is the best person but for the Love of God don’t lose your morality over it.
Maybe everybody should stop pandering to evangelicals - who kind of reign supreme on FR with all their hatred of Catholicism and Mormons.
Trump has only occasionally brought out the religious card - Cruz plays it like an ace; each day, every week he’s talking to a state he thinks has a few evangelicals. It doesn’t suit him anymore than it suits Trump. But unlike Trump, Cruz has no humor, no irony, nothing but self-regard. He’s distinctly unpleasant.
I post what I want to post. If you’re sick of it, don’t read it. God knows there are plenty of other posts to read. I have freedom of speech on FR and I’ll continue to use it.
“I called it yesterday!! He would backtrack on that statement!!”
You and everyone else, so don’t get inflated over it.
Can you explain the difference between “Let the states decide” and “Let it stay like it was.”? Just asking.
Also, do you think that the next president of the United States will actually trouble his mind where transgenders go to the bathroom? Would it not make better sense for the people who have handled public restrooms since they were innovated continue to set policy?
I am like a lot of people; I did not see the Today show yesterday, so in the beginning, all I had was a bunch of hysterical headlines, and man was it bad. Since I have read what he said (and finding the whole quote was not all that easy) I cannot recall a single headline that summarized what he said accurately.
Rush Limbaugh said he was calling for the right of a a 25 year old male that happened to decide he was a woman at two o’clock to saunter into a woman’s restroom. Same with Cruz.
Others stated he was calling for adult males to go into an elementary school and use the little girls restroom.
It got insane and it probably still is with Cruz-bots.
I wonder if Bruce Jenner is in it for the publicity which he probably became addicted to back in the 70s and 80s. He hasn’t had any surgery except a lousy facelift. If he was any kind of decent human being, he’d been sorrowing over the life lost when he was too busy texting while driving.
I have no respect for him.
Still raging? It's dropped from FR and I haven't seen it anywhere on Fox or elsewhere. Ted Cruz has, in his usual dishonest way, cut some ads attacking Trump but this issue seems mostly over from what I've seen.
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